Ambling to Amblecote

It was a nice sunny day when we got up and took another look at the wiring. Nick had had an idea over night – he suspected he’d not reconnected the main engine negative… He hadn’t, so basically the engine was trying to crank using the exhaust as the negative. We reconnected it, swapped out the fan belt which had been slipping, got it started with no problems, and cast off.

We only met a couple of boats on the move between Brewood and Autherley Junction and we made pretty good time. Close to Three Mile Post there was a man on a moored boat who asked us if there was a supermarket near by. We told him there were two small ones in Brewood but he said he needed a big one, so we told him the nearest big supermarket is in Market Drayton and it’s quite a walk from the canal.

There were the usual problems at Autherley Stop Lock as the hire base had moored boats right up to the entrance to the lock. So we did the usual and put our bow into the lock entrance and the crew jumped off. Unusually there were no boats waiting to come in, or even cruising down the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal (Main Line: Aldersley to Autherley) so we were able to go straight out in the canal. There was no sign of activity at Aldersley Junction and we only saw one boat on the move until we were through Compton Lock No 31. We had a single handed boat pull out from the moorings beyond the bridge and he headed straight for us before stopping and backing up a little – he said he’d not seen us at all.

We met another single hander at Wightwick Mill Lock No 30 who, as the lock was pretty much full, got it ready for us. So in return we stayed back after we’d worked through the locks to close the bottom gates for him. The person at Wightwick Lock No 29 hadn’t even looked before emptying the lock in front of all, and all he could say was “Its getting a bit cold isn’t it?”

After we were though the lock we threw a whole chicken into the slow cooker for supper. – we’ve found that the slow cooker is a great addition to the boat’s galley because it can just sit there tucked away safely on counter top cooking away and you don’t really need to check on it as much as if you were cooking in the oven or on the stove top, and of course you’re not burning lots of Calor Gas or heating up the boat doing so.

By now the clouds had started to build and without the sun shining the wind was quite cool and we really thought the weather was going to turn like it had the previous day. We met very little traffic as we made our way along the canal and through the scattered locks. We got to The Bratch and were basically waved straight in the the C&RT lock crew who said that most of the traffic was heading south which possibly explained why we’d not seen many other boats. There were two boats waiting at the bottom but then it was back to it just being us alone on the canal.

We stopped at Round Oak PH for a couple of drinks and discussed our plans for the evening which basically boiled down to “Get to Amblecote, moor up, eat and then and visit the pubs”.

It was a bit chaotic atGreensforge Wharf Services with people moving boats round and people standing round holding ropes. We suspect that the Viking Afloat boat that decided to send crew off to the lock as we went past them might have felt that we’d “stolen” their lock but ….

There were quite a few boats moored on the Stourton Moorings including a boat that was selling engine oil – and as we seemed to have a leak round the oil filter we picked up a gallon of oil just to be on the safe side.

The pounds between the four Stourton locks were low, especially below Stourton Top Lock, Lock No 17 where it must have been a foot to 18 inches down, but luckily above the lock the canal was nice and full and we made good time across the remarkably rural landscape until we reached Wordsley Junction where we turned onto the Stourbridge Town arm. The arm is quite deep, with a lot of weed, and very clear so you can see all the rubbish on the bottom of the canal.

We moored for the night opposite the moorings for the Ruskin Mill Trust and after enjoying the rather delicious chicken which we served with new potatoes and veg we got cleaned up a bit and went off into town for some drinks at The Maverick, The Swan and The Starving Rascal, before heading back to the boat past The Robin Hood which we keep failing to visit (Note to self : next time do the loop in reverse so we do the Robin Hood first).